Piece - PEACE: A transformative journey across borders
This project was created for the InParadiso Art Gallery in the Giardini della Biennale of Venice. It is supported by the town of Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy and has received honorary patronage of the Polish Institute in Rome.
Nowadays, it seems that the concept of peace and unity is becoming very fragile, like a ceramic plate which can easily be cracked and damaged. We live in a time when more and more personal, geographical, political, social and religious borders are being created. They separate one side from the other, create division, tension and force us to think in terms of “us” and “them.”
In this project I invite the viewers to look past all the boundaries we find around and inside ourselves, and instead focus on creating peace. By putting together broken pieces, I create a new form of unity out of something previously unfamiliar and different. To symbolize this, I work with pieces of randomly broken old plates, collected from different parts of the world. Plates are known to people everywhere and they carry information about our traditions, culture and history, as well as intimate family moments and memories.
The technique used to glue the pieces of plates together is inspired by Kintsugi, the antique Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. This method is combined with a modern material in different bright colors. The two ways of working - traditional and contemporary - are also significant and add to the concept of coming together.
The artwork embraces and highlights our wounds and flaws. The lines on the plates show that something has been shattered into pieces, but they also give hope. What was broken, can be fixed. What was hurt, can be healed: from a piece to peace!
